Dead N9
 

Hello Guys,

Recently my phone died. I figured my battery was completely dead but the flasher says it's at 80% - that's not the problem.

When I try to turn it on there is a response from the LED, but there's no vibration and no screen activity. I've tried flashing it several times - no errors - flashes fine. I tried a complete reset, erasing, normal and some random commands I found on the forums.

Anyway here comes the weird part. It turned on twice. Lasted for about a day and then died again. Both times it started just after I flashed it AND disconnected/connected the screen. Now however it doesn't seem to want to repeat that. What could I be missing?

PS: I tried starting it without the proximity sensor - no luck there.

EDIT: It was running the stock OS, no modifications, I didn't even go into root too much. Also if left connected to a PC it seems to try booting every now and again - the PC registers a new device and then loses it.

Re: Dead N9
 

leave it on a time. For me the UI needs one time a lot to start, maybe 10 minutes. After that, my N9 works well again

So you just left it sitting after turning it on with nothing seeming to happen and it eventually came to life? Lucky you!

Re: Dead N9
 

It never actually turns on though..I don't even reach the vibration.

Re: Dead N9
 

Are you sure it's not battery (after deep discharge). It can charge to correct voltage, but capacity can be to low(as current, and then voltage can drop under load under second). In Poland batteries can sometimes be bought as cheap as $5. You can allso try connecting battery from other phone or power supply.

Re: Dead N9
 

The flasher says it's at around 80%. Besides the battery lasted me more than a day before this happened. One of the times it turned on it lasted about a day as well. There must be something else..

In that case your situation sounds like what happened to my first N9. It wouldn't start up as far as the vibrate signal, but it could be flashed, erased, MALF state cleared, rescue kernel loaded and flash partitions mounted, etc. I suspected screen and prox sensor as you did, but replacing them didn't help. I never did try a different battery, and ended up replacing it. A trip to a repair shop in the UK (no N9 support in US) got me nothing but a refunded service.fee and out of pocket a little for my half of the shippi.g.

My suspicion in my case is a hardware problem, and I'd suspect it in yours too. Since the phone never restarted after going from warm indoors to well below freezing outdoors for a couple hours to clear snow one brisk March day, thermal shock is my prime suspect. Speculation, but a marginal solder joint could easily use thermal shock as an excuse to go hi-Z for good. Maybe even that proximity sensor header. But I've never gotten around to looking up the specs I'd need to give a little hot air smd rework attention to the likely suspects.

Good luck with yours. Make sure to post if you find the culprit.

Re: Dead N9
 

Hi.
I would suggest juiceme's ubiboot. There's a thread about it here in TMO. Maybe you can at least read the syslog messages while the device boots..... and hopefully find an answer.
Regards.

Re: Dead N9
 

From what I understand I would need access to the file system for that (maybe I'm reading it wrong though). My windows machine can't get a good lock on it - only the flasher keeps it steady. Even when I can see my n9 it's still inaccessible.

Re: Dead N9
 

Sounds an awful lot like the experience I had with a dodgy screen. I'd cracked my screen and ordered a replacement online (a case of caveat emptor). The N9 was working fine with the cracked screen, but when I took it off and put in the new screen, it wouldn't boot up. The LED blinked when I turned it on, but the phone never vibrated like it should have if it was actually booting up.

I figured I must have messed something up doing the screen replacement, so I put the cracked screen back on and presto! The phone was alive again. So clearly the culprit was the new (dud) screen. I ordered another one, and when that arrived and I put it on, it booted up just like it was supposed to.

Long story short, your issue sounds like a hardware issue, specifically with the screen. If you can, try and find a new one from a reliable vendor and see if that helps.